The Lone Swordsman
by CaptianOfTheKeep
Summary: From the beginning, I knew that other people would just slow me down, so I never went anywhere with anybody. Slowly, I became a legend, a mercenary, a lone blade available for hire. For a while I just worked for money, then I met Kirito, my just and caring equal. Then I became a player on the sidelines, a player available encase of need, hiding in the shadows. I suck at summaries.
1. Chapter 1

_October 9th, 2022_

I ducked under a sword skill that was aimed at my head and quickly backpedaled, panting.

"damn, I should of thought this through." I growled while slamming my fist into the monster's face, killing it.

I looked at the screen in front of me, telling me my rewards for killing the monster. I got 1,000 XP, a leather hide, and 700 col. I sighed and said,

" only that for killing a level 27 monster, this is getting kinda rough."

I had straight, shaggy, jagged, raven black hair that reached my shoulders. My eyes where onyx color with some grey mixed into it. My eyebrows were thick and light, a strange and rare combo, but it worked. I was 6'0, a feat that I was proud of. I was twenty but soon to be twenty-one My face was very angular, having a slightly pointed chin and high cheekbones. My skin was a pale tan and very smooth, or as some girls would say, perfect. I had flat, dry humor and I almost never smiled, unless I was with my punk/Gothic cousin ( Who was actually my second cousin, twice remov- ahh I don't even want to get into it, my family is so fucked up. ) , and only living family, Thalia. Most people called me the "King of Emo'" or the "black hole boy". I always smiled whenever i heard the comments, but I don't know how Thalia reacted. For the most part, I think she just kept her poker face on. Most people thought of Thalia as my mom or sister, but as a fact, as you already know, she is neither.

"**HELL**o Kazu, are you lagging or what?" asked my friend Tazman while smiling at his joke. I blinked twice before saying "no dumbass just thinking." He sighed and put a had over his eyes while saying, "You know, there is and Orc lord behind you about to turn you into a carpet and a pancake. I would help you buuuuuuut you called me a dumbass sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. . . no."

My eyes widened and I quickly rolled to the side, cursing myself for letting my guard drop. Where i just stood was a crater in the ground, with a pair of glowing red eyes staring right at me from above the the dent. I responded with the flat of my sword to the face, making it fly back several meters. I grinned and walked toward the Orc, who was trying to get up. I was about to finish it of when a dark bronze great sword intercepted my path and kilUIled the monster.

"damn it Taz, that was my kill!" I yelled at my friend frustrated.

He simple smiled at me and said "I got bored, besides, you were taking to long, so i decided to "help" out"

I growled at him and walked away, flipping him off as I passed him. I heard him mutter "jackass" and "son of a bitch". After about 5 minutes of walking, Taz caught up to me and said,

"so are we done for the night, caus' I want to get going"

I looked at him and sighed saying "fine, lets go find an inn." He smiled, satisfied with my answer. We walked for about ten minutes in the Forrest of Terror until we came across a town and found an inn. We quickly rented a room and crashed on the soft beds, tired and worn out from the day.

* * *

_October 20th, 2022_

Today I was "kicked" out of the Beta Test. Well, saying kicked out is an overstatement, more like I died the maximum amount of deaths for my level. The level that i died at was 35, which means that i died 70 times.

"Damn, I died. . . a lot." I mumbled lightly while getting out of my bed. Before I was even halfway out, something warm and furry jumped into my lap, it was my cat, skeleton. I named him skeleton because he has white lines that mark where all the bones are inside of his black body. I smiled at him and lovingly scratched him behind the ears, making him purr in pleasure. I stood up and walked to my door, bumping into someone on the way out. I looked at who I crashed into and said "was up Thalia, where you stompin'?" My cousin looked at me for a little but before she grinned and stomped on my feet. . . hard.

'On your feet Kaz." she replied and walked to here room.

"Bastard!" I yelled at her. She laughed and flipped me off double time without turning around.

"damn, she's good" I mumbled before walking down the stairs, albeit painfully.

I went and checked the the time, 10:15 was what it read.

My eyes widened and I yelled 'FUCK! I'M LATE FOR SCHOOL!"

I heard Thalia laughing in the back round saying, "it's Saturday, dumbass!"

"oh...sick" was all I said when I heard the **WONDERFUL **news. I quickly walked over to the counter and picked up an apple and went to go take a nap, and check If Tazman was still on the Beta. When i got to my door I turned the knob and slowly opened the door waiting to see if any traps had been set my my cousin, or if Skeleton was going to fall out of the sky and cling to my face. My room was dull and empty, with only a twin size bed, a black dresser, and a large black desk with three computers on it to occupy it. The base colors of the room were black and grey. No Posters, or pictures or adds were on the walls. The walls themselves were painted a grey and a big, rough, think black carpet covered the floor. All-in-all, my room was depressing, bland and very straight forward. I sighed and closed the door, walking over to my bed to take a much needed nap.

After about an hour of sleeping, I decided to get up and go see what Thalia was doing.

My cousin Thalia was only about a seven months older than me, making her twenty-one &amp; 1/2 years of age. She stood a a height of 5'9, quiet tall for a women. Her hair was a storm cloud black and here eyes where a bright blue. She had a Gothic attire and a punk attitude, in other words, she didn't take shit from nobody. Most men would describe her a "pretty" or "attractive", where as I described her as " a pain-in-the-ass to live with, but a good friend to have." Here hair was a lot shorter than mine, it barely reaching down past here ears. When she was only seventeen, she went to explore the world, and decided to settled in Japan, were she heard it was dark, cold and it rained. When my aunt died, I where given a choice, to go live with grandpa, or with my cousin Thalia. At first I choose grandpa, thinking it would be fun, but boy did I regret my choice. He wasn't really mean or anything, he just was really, really, really strict and hardcore. After about five years of living with him, I decided to go live with my cousin. When I told my grandfather, he got angry and gave me one hell of a beating, but he sent me anyway. When Thalia saw my on her door step saying "grandpa sent me to live with you." well... she started laughing her ass of. I was thirteen, that was only four years ago.

I was snapped out of my thought when Thalia said

"was up squirt, did you break, burn, blow up or kill anything?"

"no just wanted to say hi with pain being inflicted to my toes." I answered while walking to my room. When I got there, I sat down on my bed and started to think about what Taz was doing right now in the beta. He was probably doing something stupid, crazy, or hilarious. Or maybe he was actually trying to get as far as he can. When I died the maximum amount of times, I was only a level 35, but Taz was a good 25 levels ahead of me, making him a level 60. He was also a Tank like person, making him a lot buffer than me. We also found a lot of rare stuff, but then a gain, we did a lot of rare things. One time the two of us soloed a floor boss, and won. I shook my head and went down stairs to do something. When I got there, the first thing I saw was the Television. I sighed and sat down on the couch and turned it on. The First thing I was was Spongebob.

"What the fuck is this shit? Moffo starts underwater fires without any thing to fuel it? The Fuck, he just changed into a goddamned nail and jammed the shit out of somebody over a snail. What douchbag **WROTE THIS GODDAMNED SHOW!?"**

After I... err exclaimed my feelings for the show, I turned the channel and came across the walking dead.

"This... this is more like it! why can't the people who control what is on the T.V play this stuff more often?!" I said while getting up to go grab some soda. When I sat back down, Skeleton ran downstairs and jumped into my lap. I smiled at his statics and thought 'it's going to be a good night'.

* * *

_October 31st, 2022_

Today was the last day in the beta. In six days, they will launch the official start of Sword Art Online.

"wow... HOLY SHIT I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!" I yelled while I decided to order the game with my beta privileges.

When I was ordering the game I got a message from Taz, telling me to meet him at the train station. I quickly replied saying "_ok, I'll be therein about 15 minutes." _When I finished replying I quickly finished ordering SAO and ran down stairs and outside to get to the train station. Right before I was going to start Walking, I decided against it and hopped on My early 17th birthday.

A sleek, black, Ducati.

What can I say? My dad was a rich man but liked to live low.

After putting on my helmet and walking out looking totally badass, I decided to NOW go to the train station.

About 12 minutes later, I pulled up to the station and parked, deciding to leave my helmet on, keeping the badass look. I saw Taz shaking his heard at my moves, but smiling none of the less.

"you wanted to see me?" I decided to say after about a minuted of scilence

"Kaz, i'm not got to be laying SAO." Taz replied.

"hahaha, what." I growled.

"I'm sorry dude, its not that I don't want to, I really do, its just well, um, well..."

"spit. it. out." I growled out

"my baby brother some how managed destroyed my NerveGear and chew up my SAO hard copy, which so happened to be my only copy." Taz said while scratching the back of his head.

I stared at him before laughing. He smiled weakly and put his head down. I patted him on the shoulder before saying

"s'ok man, I understand. I used to have a ba-" I stopped myself in mid sentence and started to cough.

"you alright dude?" Taz asked, concerned. I waved him off and started to walk back to my bike.

"hey" I called "I'll take you to lunch the day before the launch, my treat."

Taz smiled before waving and yelling "sounds good, we'll meet here 12:30."

I waved, showing that I was cool with that time.

I sighed and rode home, thinking about the fun that I was going to be having in one weeks time.


	2. First Day

_November 6th, 2022_

I looked at my watch, seeing that it was _12:57._ 'Almost time' I thought while changing into my "gaming" clothes.

"Kazu, I'm off to work, i'll be back at around 10:00 o.k? bye." I heard Thalia yell from downstairs.

_12:58 _

I quickly put on my Nerve Gear and waited for the official launch time.

_12:59... 13:00_

I smirked and said "Link Start!"

When I finished those two soon to be infamous words, I found myself flying through electricity. The system did a quick start up check, testing all of my senses. I wonder why they chose pizza for taste? Maybe pizza was Akihiko Kayaba's favorite food. When the sensory check was completed, the system asked my to log in. When I finished typing in my password and username, the system asked me if I would like to take the information from the beta test. I clicked yes, thinking that my stats might be transferred over. When I was logged in and all the testing shit was done, I found myself flying through electricity again. 'I'm starting to feel like a fucking lightning bolt. Which isn't a bad thing.' I thought while slowly forming in the plaza.

'ahhh, sword art online, Its been a while since the beta, I wonder if they changed anything.' I thought while clenching my fist and looking up."awww, c'mon, that's just disgusting! activating add blocker." I complained wile looking at the adds that where advertising about mountain dew and how many taste buds I have, which I now know is 10,000. 'Would you like to pay $29.99 to activate add blocker?' a message appeared in front of me. "Really, I spent FIVE FUCKING THOUSAND DOLLARS on this game, and the add blocker wasn't included in the PAYMENT!... I am gonna burn this fucker to the ground." I growled out while walking away.

* * *

After cussing the game makers out mentally I walked slowly into an alley and quickly started to speed up once I was out of sight. I stopped in the middle of west field and look ed behind me, making sure that nobody had followed me here. I was mentally glad that nobody had seen me walk off. I opened my menu to equip my starter sword. When I opened my menu, I looked at my stats to see if they transferred over. I was surprised when they actually did. I went and checked my inventory to see if all of my items had gone over as well. I was a little disappointed when they didn't, well at least not all of them. My main equipment had gone over, except for all of my weapons, which was VERY disappointing.

I wondered if my skills transfered over as well, so I went to check on my skill page. It read,

One Handed Curved-Sword 1/1000

One Handed Straight-Sword 1/1000

I closed my menu, satisfied, and walked forward, deciding to keep my starter armor equipped, I don't want an noobs asking for any help. I started to grind, wanting to reach at least a level ten before 17:30 **(A/N: for all you people who don't know 24 hour time, that's 5:30 pm)**, knowing that my cousin will ask me how far I got and how many levels did I gain. It was quite easy work, considering my stats and how high they where. At about 17:25, I reached level seven, and was satisfied with myself for the work that I got done. I decided to log out and go eat something, and then come back. when I opened my menu, I noticed that the log out button was missing. 'Weird... probably just a bug.' I thought to myself while walking back to town. When the town of beginnings was almost in sight, I heard bells ringing. 'What the fu~' I though while stopping. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of blue light. When it faded, I was in town square, 'what the fuck a forced teleport? Who the hell did that! the only person with that kind of power would be a GM or Kayaba Akihiko himself. I heard comments form the crowd of players like

"what's going on?"

"I have a meeting to go to!"

"WHERE THE HELL IS THE LOG OUT BUTTON!"

"I HAVE A DATE SCHEDULED AT 6:00 , I NEED TO LOG OUT, WHY AM I HERE!

I snickered at the comments until a player next to me said while pointing at a flashing hexagon in the sky"What the hell is that" The player had red hair, reddish brown eyes, a bandanna wrapped around his forehead, and a white shirt on. All-in-all, most of the players attributes where red.

"well balls, I believe the locals call it a hexagon, I'm not 100% sure on that, so I'll have to get back to you on that." a dark haired next to him answered.

"Fuck off, and my name is Klein." the players known as Klein said.

"and now the sky is bleeding"

"wow, they really are working for that M rating."

'true, the game does has an M and T+ rating on it' I thought while looking at the sky, where a figure was starting to form out of the "blood".

When it finished forming, it was a robbed person that had dark purple smoke coming out of the hood that covered his "face"

"**Hello everyone, Welcome to Sword Art Online. My name is Kayaba Akihiko."** He said.

When the crowd said heard that, the all started talking at once, making a lot of noise, strengthening my hatred for crowds and people in general. Kayaba tried to get every body to stop talking. TRIED being the key word in that last sentence.

"Y**ea ok, I'm just going to put the voice on mute."** he said. When he finished his comment, idmeatlly a large, blowing silver mute sign appeared above his head

"Do you think that he realized that he just muted himself?" Klein asked the dark haired boy next to him.

'give it a minute' I thought while frowning.

"Give it a minute" the boy said. I cracked a grin.

Suddenly, the mute sign dissipated and Kayaba said, **"Well.. that was bad, let me start over. Welcome Players, my name is Kayaba Akihiko and welcome to Sword Art Online. I trust that you have all noticed the log out button is missing from the main menu. However, this is not a game malfunction. I repeat, this is not a game malfunction, but an original feature of Sword Art Online"**

'Original feature, what the fuck is he going on about?!' I mentally screamed.

"A-A feature?" Klein whispered, clearly confused.

**"You cannot log out of SAO on our own. No one on the outside will be able to remove or shut down the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful of microwave radiation,destroying your brain and thus ending your life."**

The horrifying thought of my cousin removing the NerveGear and making my head explode flew threw my mind, but I then reminded myself that the last time she did that, well... I kicked her ass pretty good, so I think that I'm safe.

The crowed started asking questions and one person said, " Come On, enough of this bullshit" and tried walking away. Right when he was about to set foot into an alley way, and invisible force blocked him and he banged on it saying, "What the Hell! I can't get out!"

"What's he talking about, he's gotta be nuts. Right, Kirito?" Klein whispered to the person standing next to him, who I now assumed was Kirito.

"He's right. The Transmitter's microwave signals are just like those in a microwave oven. If the limiter was disabled, it could fry our brains." Kirito answered.

"Why don't they cut the power then?"

This is where I decided to pull the jackass card and but in. " The NerveGear has an internal battery, it can last up to three days on its own."

Kirito looked at me and Klein eyes widened in shock and slight anger. "That's Just messed up! What's going on!" he spat out while shaking his head.

**"Unfortunately, the friends and family of several players have ignored this warning and attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have permanently retired in both Aincrad and in the real world."**

"213 players... that's fucking retarded!" I muttered.

**As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting on this incident and the many deaths. Thus, you can now assume that the danger of having the NerveGear removed from your head are greatly reduced. Please relax and work hard to clear the game."**

I heard Kirito gasp and my eyes widened in shock and horror. _' clear the game?! Sure I was one of the best beta testers, if not he best, but to clear the game, that's impossible! _

**"However, do take note of this. You can no longer respawn in this game. Once your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be permanently erased, and at the same time... the NerveGear will destroy your brain."**

I gasped and shook my head when the thought of a boss catching me with a sword kill in the chest and my Hp dropping to zero. A small fire of rage started to burn inside of me, growing by the foot with every passing second, until it almost consumed me. _'this man... this man... THIS MAN IS FUCKING RETARDED! HE IS A GODDAMNED GENIUS AND HE IS A PSYCHO WHO TRAPS PEOPLE IN GAMES! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-'_

"... I'm going to kill you you bastard... YOU HEAR THAT! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU BASTARD! YOU WILL THROUGH HELL WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!"

**"You only need to fulfill one condition to set yourselves free- clear the game. You are currently on the 1st floor, the lowest level in Aincrad. Make you way through each dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, and you will advance to the next level. defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, and you will clear the game."**

The crowed started to talk among themselves and asking what he meant by clearing the game. "No way... That's impossible" Klein exclaimed while shaking his head. I simply put up my shields and decided that I would never get close to anyone in this game, because being close to someone will only bring you down and when they die, it feels like a part of you has died as well.

"... the memories... so painful. I don't even want to remember them." I whispered weakly.

**"And finally, you can find a gift in your inventory that will all be equipped momentarily, please find out for yourselves."**

When he finished talking, a mirror appeared in my hand. "The fu-," was all I got before a bright blue light surrounded me and when it faded, I continued "-ck". Staring back at me was a shocked young man with dark green, almost black, eyes, pale skin, a scar that ran over his right eye down to his jaw, and an angled face with shoulder length black hair that was held up in a ponytail. **(A/N Basically, He looks like a taller, grumpier, slightly more muscular, long haired Kirito.)**

"It's me, the real me... what the hell?!" I yelled while looking up at Kayaba. I knew exactly how it happened and I heard Kirito explaining it to Klein. I rubbed a hand a cross my stomach and winced. I was out of shape. not in the 'I'm fat' kind, but the 'I'n not as muscular As I would like to be' kind.

**"All of you must be wondering, why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I wanted to create my own world that I could observe and admire. That is why I made Sword Art Online. And now it has all been fulfilled."**

My eyes where practically glowing with hatred and the flames of wrath blew higher, making my anger towards the bastard grow.

**"This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. I wish every player the best of luck."**

"**KAYABA!**" I screamed while flipping him off double time. He Slowly faded into a red dust like material and said, **"****Good luck... Kazu." **

My eyes widened and I looked around to see if anyone else noticed his last three words, but everyone was still standing, frozen is shock. After a few seconds...

All Hell broke lose.

People where screaming in outrage, crying of shock, and generally fighting among themselves. I saw a shimmer and I realized that that was the barrier that was keeping us in. I pushed myself through the crowd and ran through an alley way, already planning on what I was going to do to survive in this world. right when I was about to run out of the city walls, I saw a NPC with a glowing **! **over its head. I slowed to a stop and accepted the quest. It was Simple quest, kill about 50 Dire wolves and you will get your reward in the next town. I shrugged and thought 'ok, easy quest, why not?'. While I was stopped, I decided to change out of my starter equipment and change into my beta clothes which consisted of a pair of black leather pants, a black t-shirt, and a tattered black overcoat the boosted my DEF by 100. When I was done, I ended up looking way more badass then I did before. I rolled my shoulders and continued my sprint toward the next town, eyes burning with determination the whole way. After about an hour of running and grinding all the way, I was a level 12 and half way to being a level 13. I sighed and sheathed my sword and walked into the town called Tolbania **(****A/N: I haven't read the books, because the books are honestly too confusing for me, so if I get any of the town names wrong, my apologies.) **After about five minutes of walking, I came to the town center and I saw a old man with a glowing Question mark above his head. I picked up my pace and stopped when I came face to face with the old man.

"Hello sir." I started, knowing that he would ask if I finished the quest.

"Ah hello! My, such a strong young man, I hope that you came here to give me the good news that the threat of the wolves have been quelled?" The NPC asked.

"Yes, I have sir"

The old man grinned and said," Thank you! Here is your reward as promised."

When He finished talking, a screen appeared in front of me saying, _Congratulations, 'You have completed the quest "The Deadly Claw", here is your reward._

I heard the sound of a level up and I looked at my Status bar and did a double take when I saw that I was a level 15. _' Two and a half levels ehh, damn, that's some good stuff.'  
_

I opened my menu to see what quest rewards I got, and I was surprised at what I got,

A full set of equipment.

When you get a certain piece of equipment that is named, you can't buy at a NPC store, and has some special ability, it usually belongs to a set. A set includes of a pair of gloves, boots, armor, helmet, and sometimes a weapon. When you have a full set, it gives the owner a boost in ATT, DEF, HP, CRI. CH, CRI. DMG, and EVA. Depending on the set, the stats can vary, but it always has those main ones. The set name was called "The Midnight" set. Meaning that all of the equipment had midnight in the title. It was a set based mainly on offense and mobility. The armor was a mixture of leather and black cloth armor, offering fairly good defense and high mobility and room for movement, it also had sleeves that seemed to resemble a pirates... weird. **( A/N: just go to this link tagged/percy+jackson/page/9, and scroll down until you see a picture of a pirate.)** The helmet was actually a black bandanna that covered most of my forehead. (Wait, a bandanna is considered a helmet?) The boots where made out of a soft black leather and the gloves were cloth that showed my fingers and went up just a little past my wrist. (guess what color?)

**(A/N Sorry, am I rambling... whops!)**

After I equipped my newly acquired stuff, I looked to see if I got a weapon, which I did. It's name was "Black Midnight", a curved sword, barely noticeable, but still their. It had a 25% chance of inflecting bleed damage, draining 5% every 10 seconds, but it only lasted 50 seconds. It had a +60 enhancement rate and 300 durability. It had a 10% chance of inflecting blindness and a 1% change of paralysis.

"Wow, talk about OP for a sword on floor one. I ain't trading this baby anytime soon." I said while placing the sheath on my back, what can I say, I've always been kinda weird.

I started running up the stairs of the city walls and when I got to the top, I jumped off the walls, sword unsheathed and held in a ice-pick grip, falling to the ground and into a area of freshly spawned mobs.

And for just a second, I forgot that I was in a death game, and that there was no way to get out, and that we could all die in the next week.

I forgot, and I smiled.

* * *

**A/N Whoo YEA! Chapter two is DONE! Thank you for waiting and I'm not sorry for taking so long. I have a Lot of ideas for this story, and I plan to write them all down. Also I accept HELPING flames, I wan't to be able to improve my story in any way. So if you think that you are a better writer than me then my all means, go ahead and tell me what I did wrong and I will fix it.**

**Also, my story will have some references from "Sword of the Stranger" and other anime. So yea...**

**Armed With Wings 666 out!**


	3. Chapter 3: Floor one

_December 6th, 2022_

I sighed and tried to do a wall jump one more time, only to fail. My acrobatics skill was only at a level 15/1000 and I was trying to do a wall jump. Of course I was going to fail. I sighed, today there was this supposed meeting about the boss. I didn't want to go, but it was a chance to receive money and a possible the last attack bonus. "What the hell," I said, "lets go."

Walking out of the alleyway, I check my map and walked over to where the meeting was supposed to be held. It was in a ancient Greek amphitheater, with multiple pillars surrounding it. Climbing up on one of the pillars, I crouched down on it and waited for the meeting to start. After about a minute, a player with blue hair walked onto the stage and started talking. "OK! now that everybody is here, let's get this meeting started. So anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming, good to see you. My name is Diavel and in this game," he pounded a fist on his chest, " the job I rolled is knight!" Players started laughing and some called out, "Dude, there's no job system in this game!" and, "Is this meeting a joke too?".

"Do you guys want to here this or not?" Diavel said, effectively silencing every one. "Alright, here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today. First, we need to defeat the boss and get to floor two. The next step is to tell everyone waiting in the town of beginnings, that it IS possible to beet this game! Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here, do you agree, or not?" he said firmly. Players started looking at each other while nodding and some started clapping. I simply just rolled my eyes. _'Seriously, the boss room was at the top of the fucking tower in the middle of the goddamned level and nobody thought to look there? We're gonna fucking die if the players are this green.'_ I thought while scanning the crowd. I knew that was where the boss room was because I found it about a week after the game started and tried to solo it at my level 22.

It didn't go so well.

I almost died and Black Midnight broke. Sad to say the least, it was a good sword, but I kinda forgot about checking up on it and well... um.. yea.

Luckily, I found a quest that gave me a sword called the Anneal Blade. It wasn't as good as Black Midnight, but it was still one of the best swords available on this floor. You could only do the quest for the Anneal Blade 2, "And I think that I found the other lucky winner." I said while staring a a player. They had black hair, a slightly curvy figure, barely notable, but still there. They wore a blue shirt with a silver breastplate with Anneal Blade was strapped across their back. I couldn't tell if they where a guy or a girl, because their back was turned at me.

"OK! I'm glad to hear your all with me on this. Now, let's figure out how we're going to beet the boss. First up, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group full of multiple parties." Diavel said with a small smile on his face. The player I was watching suddenly sat up straight and started to look around in panic. I grinned, _' aah, a solo! He probably was a beta tester.' _I thought. Only betas or crazy people went solo so far in the game. It was considered crazy to play solo, unless you were a beta. I thought about helping them out before shaking my head and reminding myself that other people would only slow me down. The player suddenly started to scoot over and I finally managed to get a good look at their face.

They couldn't have been older then 14, their eyes were a deep black with small bits of grey in them. I could tell that they were a guy, because he didn't have any breast.

He talked to a player that was draped in a red cloak with a hood covering their face. I frowned, _' I wish that my bandanna was a hood.' _I thought.

Turning my attention back to Diavel, I thought that I recognized him from somewhere... his voice seemed familiar. "Strange... very, strange" I muttered while glaring at him, trying to remember where I saw him.

Continuing to talk, Diavel said, "Alright! Look's like everyone's teamed up! Now them-"

"Hold up a sec!" I player yelled, cutting Diavel off. Jumping down multiple steps, while making a lot of unnecessary grunting sounds, a spiky haired player jumped down and landed next to Diavel. " My names Kibaou, got that?! " He continued. _'Wow, who's this asshole, and who did is hair? It looks like a mace, or a flail for sale.' _I thought while frowning. Suddenly my frown morphed into a small smile. I thought of me smashing his head into a column after I "missed" and attack.

That cheered me up.

"Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest."

_'Like you big-ass ego?'_

"All of you know about the 2,000 players that have died, right?"

Deciding to call out, I said, "mmhh, and let me guess, you're their mother, oh wait I'm sorry, you're their mistress. It's very confusing to tell them apart these days."

Looking around in rage, Kibaou's mouth looked like it was starting to foam. "Some of you need to apologize to them right now!" He shouted, trying to ignore what I had just said. "Kibaou, I think I know who you are talking about. Are to talking about the ex-beta testers?" Diavel said. "OF COURSE I AM! The day this stupid ass game started, they just ran off and left all of us noobs to fend for ourselves." Kibaou shouted.

_'wow... man this guy must of had a bad time in bed with his bitch before coming to SAO... or maybe he has no dick and is on his cycle.. yea, probably the last one.' _ I thought with a shit eating grin on my face.

"We should make them give up their loot, and bow down to us. Hell, I bet that some betas are in here as well. Go on, show yourselves!" Kibaou shouted while folding his arms.

"Get of the fucking stage you ass-ass." I yelled while jumping down and landing in front of him. "Yo, dickskin. Who put the stick up your ass? You got one of these, didn't you?" I asked while holding up a small brown book, "The item store gives them out for free."

"Yea," Kibaou started, "of course I go one, who didn't?"

"Exactly... who didn't?" said a large, and I mean LARGE black guy, (I'm pretty sure that was racist, but IDGAF) "Nobody. This book was put together by the beta testers, full of tips and strategies on how to survive this game." I decided to leave it to him and walked back to my column. "Everyone read it, yet some people still died. The beta testers did every they could." The large black player said.

"Umm, actually I didn't read it." A player called out.

"Yea, I didn't read it either." another said.

"I skimmed it." I said while rolling my eyes.

"What! Didn't any of you read it, it is literally a matter of life or death." The large black guy said, face showing surprise.

"Well dude, it's like 80 pages." A player called out.

"2,000 PEOPLE ARE DEAD." Back bro said.

"THEY ARE!?" half of the people yelled, shocked.

"... I'm SO done with you people." he said.

"What do you mean 'You people'?" a player called out.

"OK, so yea, just like... uh.." Diavel started, only to fade off because he didn't know the dark skinned giants name. "Agil." Was all he said.

"Right, so as I was saying, this book if full of some great tips and strategies, including how to beet the first boss, Illfang. So as you enter the boss room, he is going to throw wave after wave of disposable minions at you.. and you must answer in kind? Send the weaker players first, good rule of thumb, if a player asks you for col two seconds after meeting you, Front lines-" Diavel said with a hint of _'what the fuck?' _ in his voice.

Ahh, I loved writing for the greater good of the public.

"HA!, serves them right." Kibaou said.

"If they hijack conversations to rant about there political views, Front lines-" Diavel continued

Hell yes!

"Aw shit." Kibaou said while slouching.

"If they ask female player for pecks at there boobs, Front lines!" Diavel said with his eyes widening slightly.

Several players started to call out things like, "AW BULLSHIT!" or , "THAT"S DISCRIMINATION!" and, "BOOO".

"Now, now people. I think that some valid points are being made here! Now, it goes on to say that when Illfang's health goes into the red, he is going to switch from his ax and buckler to something called a talwar. At that point we should initiate a strategy called the final solution and I"M JUST GONNA STOP READING! Jesus who wrote this this thing?" Diavel said, eyebrows raised. I chuckled and smiled a little, thinking about how much fun I had writing that. "Okay, so the guides a bust. But we already had a plan, so, let's stick to the one we have, no? Alright, so as for the rewards, money will be distributed evenly among player, and the the party that defeats the boss gets the EXP, and who ever gets an item gets to keep it. Good? Great! Alright everybody, get plenty of rest tonight, we leave at noon." Diavel finished looked at all of the assembled players.

Some people groaned about the time but accepted it anyways. Jumping down from the column, I walked away and decided that I would go grind for a bit, hoping to reach level 25 before tomorrow.

_December 7, 2022_

"OK, so there where a few more stairs then we realized. But let's not let that get us down! I only have one thing to say... LET"S WIN!" Diavel said with a determined smile on his face.

_'A FEW more stairs than we realized?! There was ONE FUCKING THOUSAND GODDAMNED STAIRS!' _ I thought while flipping him the bird. Opening the door, Diavel slowly walked in, weapons drawn and held at ready. After a few steps in, a pair of angry, glowing, red eyes appeared out of the darkness, glaring at us. After about thirty seconds, the room lit up in an array of colors, hurting my eyes. Landing in front of our little group was a large red mob with diamond shaped paint patterns tattooed on its body. Sprinting towards a sentinel, I charged up a sword skill, and unleashed it on the mob, leaving a bright red line in its wake. The mob stumbled backwards and I sprinted forward while jamming my sword through its neck, killing it. I looked around and noticed that more sentinels had spawned, and that everyone was still trying to beet their own mobs. I sighed and twirled my sword while sprinting towards the mobs. Slashing at one with a vertical, I quick used my upward momentum to put me behind the mobs and I quickly activated a horizontal, hitting all three of them. The three mobs turned turned and looked at me. I grinned and made the 'come at me bro' motion. Charging me, the three mobs raised their poleaxes for a downward strike. Two from the sides, one from the front. Raising my sword to block the strike aimed at my head, I let the one st my side hit my forearms. Breaking free, I noticed that my health had dropped by ten percent. I growled and charged a sword skill called double slash. It was an AOE skill that aimed at the waist, then quickly sliced at the head area. Killing all three of them. I looked around and saw that the bosses first to health bars were gone and the third one was half way empty.

_'good, we're making progress. nobody has died yet either. That's also a good thing. Now I wonder, if I-' _I was brought out of my thoughts when a loud roar pierce the air. Looked back over at the boss looked at it in suprise, It was already down to twenty-fire percent on it last health bar.

The red zone.

Throwing his ax and buckler, Illfang reached for the sword on his back. Diavel suddenly ran forward yelling, "Stand back, I've got it!"

_'That DOUCHE!' _ I thought while glaring at him. He was a beta tester, and now I remember who he was. He lead the assault team in the beta as well. Illfang quickly pulled out the sword that was on his back and I paled. _'OH SHIT! That's not a talwar, it's an nodachie! This ins't like the beta!'_

"Diavel, wait stop! That's not a talwar, it's an nodachie!" I yelled.

"What's the difference?" he yelled back.

"Well a talwar is an Indian who's your aunt, while a nodachie is Japanese. While both are primarily slashing weapons, the talwar was favored by Calvary men, as apposed to an nodachie which was mainly used for dick measuring."

"What's your point?!" The boss was now jumping from column to column, sword glowing a hateful red.

"Well if you let me finish, I was getting to that. You see-" I started but was cut off when the boss fell from the sky and landed a heavy blow on Diavel's chest.

"Oops." was all that came out of my mouth as the boss flew forward and followed up with a strong upward blow.

"Diavel! NO!" I heard Kibaou yell as the boss landed in front of him. Looking over to where he was laying, I saw a player, the same one from the meeting, holding Diavel with what looked like a heath potion in his hand. Walking over I saw that Diavel was refusing the potion, saying that he couldn't do it anymore. Deciding to continue my "educational" rant, I said, "I was trying to say that a nodachie is a little bit longer than a talwar, so it will have more and do a bit more damage."

"And, why couldn't you have said that first?" Diavel asked.

"I like to think of myself as a shitty teacher. Anyway, if you are going to die, can you do it quickly, I hate waiting. But if you aren't going to die, then drink the damn potion."

The player that was holding Diavel glared at me and told me to shove a stick up my ass.

"Well fuck you too!" Was all I said while staring at him.

"Please, you have to beet the boss, for every one here. Both of you, Kirito, Kazu." Was the last thing Diavel said before he shattered into nothingness.

I stared at the spot in shock. While I may not have cared about him, I cared about life, and he just lost his. A reminder that this world was real. I turned to glare at the boss, and something happened. The boss stopped attack the other players and looked at me. My glare hardened and I slowly raised my left hand, flipping him off.

That somehow managed to piss it off and put all of the aggro on me.

Charging me, Illfang roared and brought his sword in a powerful downward strike. I simply raised my sword and placed my left palm in the flat of the blade. Our swords connected I a shower of sparks. Illfang roared and brought his sword up for another strike. I simply stepped to the side, and watched as the blade crashed into the ground, cracking it. Charging a sword skill, I flew forward and pierced the bosses stomach and quickly activated a slant and ripped upward, leaving the boss at roughly 15% health. Landing on the ground, Rolled backwards and said, "Switch." Charging past me, was little Red Riding hood and a Kirito. The worked good together, managing to get the boss down to 8% health before Illfang did a feint and hit Kirito square in the chest, making him fly backwardsm into Little Red Riding hood, who no longer had a hood. Raising his sword to deal the finishing blow, Illfang brought his sword down only for it to be intercepted by Agil, knocking the boss backwards. The rest of the players charged forward and Agil looked at Kirito and said, "We can hold this bastard off until you get you health back up."

"Yea, you got it." was all Kirito said.

The players were doing a good job at holding Illfang down, until they got Illfang's health down to about 5% percent. Activating a AOE skill, Illfang knocked all of the players away, and stunned some of them. He then jumped into the air and activated a skill that was aimed at Agil. Sprinting forward, I charged a sword skill and said, well, more shouted, "Time to die motherfucker!"

Slicing Illfang in several places, We landed on the ground about 50 meters apart. Me in a roll, and him in a disgraceful heap.

Wait, what was ever graceful about him? Ah fuck it.

Running forward, I called out, "Come on Kirito, Little Red ridding hood. Let's kill this asshole, one last attack!"

Agreeing, Kirito and L.R.R.H (Little red riding hood) ran up next to me and I looked at Illfang and said, "So help me, I'm only going to accept you DEAD!"

Charging a sword skill, Kirito blocked Illfang's strike and L.R.R.H lunged forward, piercing his stomach. I quickly Ran out from behind them and slashed through him with a slant while Kirito ran in front of me. Charging a horizontal, Kirito traced back up my line and ripped his sword out, draining the last bit of Illfang's health and thefore amking him die.

Silence.

Suddenly, players started cheering, clapping and basically were in good spirits. Many started to congratulate Kirito on defeating the boss.

The room darkened and I slowly walked away, wanting to complete as many quest as possible before players started to stream into the second floor. Right when I was about to open the doors that lead to the next floor, I heard Kibaou shout out, "STOP CHEERING!"

I stopped and looked back at him, wishing that he would shut up.

"Why," he started while looking at Kirito, "why did Diavel have to die/ Why did you let him die?!"

"Let.. him die?" Kirito asked confused.

"You knew the the attack pattern the boss used, but you kept it from us! WHY!" Kibaou yelled.

"I know!" called out a player in Kibaou's party, "He must be a beta tester. Think about it. He knew what the boss was going to do, but he kept it from us."

"And I bet that there are other beta testers in here too! Come on show yourselves!" Kibaou yelled.

Players started to look at each other, wonder who was a beta tester and who should we trust.

I saw Kirito look down and I suddenly knew what he was about to do.

Grabbing a throwing knife, I launched it a Kibaou and grinned as it barely missed his face.

Looking around, Kibaou tried to find the player that through the knife at him.

Walking forward, I started to laugh. After a few seconds, Kirito joined me. We walked forward together and I said, "Wow Kibaou, you actually have a brain. You see, you ALMOST got everything figured out. There is just one thing you are missing."

"What?" he asked slightly confused.

"Me. Don't put us in the same group as the other betas. Some of them were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, you guys are better then they were. You see, Kirito and I knew that pattern that the boss was going to use because we have fought monsters with higher skill mastery and more sword skills. We know a lot, way more that any info broker, more that you can imagine." I said while grinning. Kirito smirked at all of the players and flipped a couple off.

"Tha- that's horrible! You two are horrible. You two are fucking cheaters! Betas and cheaters! YOU TWO ARE BEATERS!" Kibaou screamed while shacking his fist.

Kirito grinned and opened his menu, "A beater..." we said together, "Yea I like that. OK, go ahead and call me that. But make sure not to put me in with those beta testers." we finished. Kirito seemed to find what he was looking for, and equipped it. It was a large black trench coat, that went down to his feet. He smirked at the players and we slowly walked away. Walking up the steps, I heard the sound of footsteps and a "wait!"

Ignoring the plea, I continued to walk up the stairs and when I reached the second floor, I walked past the teleport gate and decided to let Kirito activate it.

Slowly, a large, slightly psychotic, grin spread on my face. I was labeled a beater, an outcast, someone to hate.

Perfect.

I hated people anyway.

* * *

**AND DONE!**

**MWHAAAHA! TYPED 3,700 WORDS IN LIKE A TOTAL OF 5 HOURS.**

**That's pretty good, for me, at least.**

**Please leave reviews and hate all you want, I like writing hateful PMs back to people who say my grammer suck.**

**Well... ok, i won't write back if you say my grammer sucks ass, because i know it does. **

**But if it is over something stupid like I spelled illfang wrong, Hell yea i'm going to write back to you.**

**Also, check out KnightEstoc profile and read his stories. And Knight, if you are reading this, congratulations, I'm boosting you ego!**

**A.W.W 666 out**


	4. Chapter 4

**OK, SO I'M SORRY!**

**I'VE LOST MY WRITING TALENT!**

**Well, for SAO that is.**

**I'm Just a little tired of knowing that I have people waiting for me, so I've decided to do this.**

**THIS STORY IS UP FOR ADOPTION!**

**Good bye all!**

**I'll write when I have a good idea!**


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